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I found this pretty challenging (=difficult), though really interesting, and certainly would not have finished it without computer aids! (My favourite is a little program I’ve had for many years called “Puzzlex”.)

We had to omit a letter, wherever and however often it occurred, from each across answer. We then had to treat the down answers according to the first sentence of a quote, the second sentence of which resulted from the omitted letters.

The first action was to find out how many letters were omitted from each across clue and write down the actual grid length by each clue. This helped as there were sometimes two or three occurrences of the same letter to be removed.

I did’nt get the quotation until I had nearly finished the puzzle. Why is it that the bottom right hand corner seems to be where one starts, giving the last words of any quotation, rather than the first? Anyway the word DARK (more likely than dank, dick or duck!) seemed to be in evidence at the end of the quote, and an internet search yielded nothing useful. (I failed to look up “dark” in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations which would have helped considerably. This proves that one should not become over-reliant on the internet!!)

EARPHONES, CRESTON (q.v.), LEAPERS and GARDA pointed to DRAY reversed for 37D and I found the extraordinary GANOIN for 30D by assuming it was also reversed. I continued in the assumption that Down clues were upside down, and, after finding a number of the Down answers, eventually got sufficient letters from the Across clues to identify the quote. “I DON’T WANT TO GO HOME IN THE DARK” by O. Henry. The previous sentence in the quote is “TURN UP THE LIGHTS.” which is the instruction to enter them reversed and the title Oh! refers to the author.

Even with this knowledge I still had a number of questions about wordplay (all now resolved) and was held up by having Barabbas as my Biblical character in 43A instead of Barnabas! This puzzle balances some pretty easy clues in 1126 and 1127. There were a lot of unfamiliar words and unusual meanings, and the omission of a letter in the grid entry is intrinsically difficult. All’s fair . . . though!

Across

Clue

Omission

Grid

Answer

Wordplay for grid entry – Definition for answer

1

I

NLET

INLET

(a)N(d) + LET (give power to) – an arm (e.g. of a river)

4

D

EOAN

DEODAND

Of dawn – personal chattel causing accidental death

7

O

DNATR

DONATOR

D(utch) + NAT + R – presenter

12

N

EURO

NEURON

A wallaroo (large kangaroo) – a cell

13

T

GLEEY

GLEETY

GLEY (clay) round base E – covered with viscous transparent stuff!

15

W

KELA

KWELA

KA round EL – South African folk jazz

16

A

ENTMED

ENTAMED

[TEN]* + MED – Shakesperian word for subdued

17

N

ICHE

NICHE

IE round CH(aplain) – Chambers has niche in the definition of tabernacle

18

T

PALMEE

PALMETTE

PE(ru) round ALME – a palm-leaf ornament

19

T

LAWCOUR

LAW-COURT

[COUL(d) WAR]* – hall of justice

21

O

CRLLA

COROLLA

CR + LL (lines) + A

23

G

UESTBEER

GUEST BEER

[BRUTE SEE(n)]* – ale that’s not normally available

25

O

NNNIES

NONNIES

N(a)NNIES – meaningless words

26

H

ANUKKA

HANUKKA

A + N (knight) replaces P in PUKKA – Jewish festival

28

O

EARPHNES

EARPHONES

[SHEEP RAN]* – we hear through them

32

M

ETEOR

METEOR

ETE (French for summer) + O(ver) + R(iver) – luminous (see Chambers)

34

E

STNCILD

STENCILED

[CLINT’S D]* – American version of stencilled

36

I

CHCORY

CHICORY

CH(eck) + O in CRY (report) – a plant (growth?)

38

N

ULIE

UNLINE

U(niform) + LIE (press in Chambers) – to remove the lining from

39

T

CRESON

CRESTON

[C NOSER]* – a rocky outcrop – is this a rock edge?

40

H

SLEP

SHLEP

SLEP(t) – a Yiddish nobody

41

E

LAPRS

LEAPERS

R in LAPS – Arkle and Red Rum were leapers (steeplechasers)

42

D

EBUG

DEBUG

EG round BU – remove bug from program

43

A

BRNBS

BARNABAS

B(orn) + R (king) + (a)N(d) + B + S(aint) – Biblical character

44

R

GADA

GARDA

GAD + A – Irish policeman

45

K

ROAU

ROKKAKU

(A)R(e)O(p)A(g)U(s) – a Japanese fighting kite

Down

1

LINEN

Underwear – LINE + N(avy)

2

NOWHERE

Out of the running – [HER NEW O]*

3

OCELOT

Cat – O(nly) + C(hild) + TOLE (lure) reversed

4

HELOTAGE

Slavery – [THE GAOL]* + E(nforced)

5

POLO

Game – PO(op deck) + LO

6

SPLEEN

Organ – [SLEEP N(oisy)]*

8

BRETON

Hat – BR(own) + ETON

9

LEMMA

Heading – L + EMMA

10

LIKELIEST

Most promising – IKE LIES in LT

11

MARAUDER

Pirate – [A MURDER A]*

14

PERSEVERATE

A condition in which actions are repeated – anagram of REPRESENTATIVE MALE with AILMENT removed i.e. [REPRESEATVE ]*

20

RURITANIA

Land of “The Prisoner of Zenda”, a romance – RU + TITANIA with R(un) replacing T(he)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under Inquisitor.
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One Response to “Inquisitor 1129 Oh! by Schadenfreude”

Twigged that down answers had to be entered upwards after solving just 5 or 6 clues – GUEST BEER & PALMETTE across, BRETON, SPLEEN & LIKELIEST down (up).

The wordplay in the across clues was often more illuminating than the definition, but I soon had enough omitted letter to guess the quote and check it out – and then the other missing letters that were thus revealed enabled me to figure out the other defined words, e.g. the entry at 45a is ROAU, the answer with 3 K’s missing, so looked at ROK…

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